From the explosion in creative writing programs and workshops to the poetry slams and open mikes in every city to the reading groups venturing beyond prose for the first time, poetry is suddenly everywhere. This vibrant anthology showcases unforgettable poems and photographic portraits of leading writers in the United States, together with a CD that features many of the poets reading from their work. From Aleida Rodriguez to Ishmael Reed to Maxine Hong Kingston to John Ashbery, the poets gathered here represent a cross section of poetic styles, geographic regions, and ethnic identities. Together they express the amazing exuberance and diversity of contemporary poetry. Margaretta K. Mitchell conceived the volume after attending the celebrated Lunch Poems Reading Series at the University of California, Berkeley. Her desire to capture the faces of all of the poets who participated in the series led to the creation of this book. Her essay explores the importance of portraiture and describes her studio sessions with these poets.
The Face of Poetry (edited by Zack Rogow)
Maxine gives an overview of the book:
From the explosion in creative writing programs and workshops to the poetry slams and open mikes in every city to the reading groups venturing beyond prose for the first time, poetry is suddenly everywhere. This vibrant anthology showcases unforgettable poems and photographic portraits of leading writers in the United States, together with a CD that features many of the poets reading from their work. From Aleida Rodriguez to Ishmael Reed to Maxine Hong Kingston to John Ashbery, the poets gathered here represent a cross section of poetic styles, geographic regions, and ethnic identities. Together they express the amazing exuberance and diversity of contemporary poetry. Margaretta K. Mitchell conceived the volume after attending the celebrated Lunch Poems Reading Series at the University of California, Berkeley. Her desire to capture the faces of all of the poets who...
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About Maxine
Maxine Hong Kingston was born on October 27th, 1940, in Stockton, California. She was the first of six American-born children; her parents, Tom and Ying Lan Hong, had had two children in China before they came to America. Her mother trained as a midwife in To Keung School of...
Published Reviews
Dec.13.2007
… Here she re-creates [a] lost fictional narrative and sets it alongside an account of her life after the [1991 Oakland fire] fire, so that the Vietnam-era doings of her antic hero, … who moves to Hawaii to...
Dec.13.2007
As far back as her late 1980s television interview with Bill Moyers, Maxine Hong Kingston talked about reimagining the contents of ancient China’s three Books of Peace—instructions on how to avoid...
Note from the author coming soon...